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The issue of outsourcing a company’s IT department has been the subject of many an article on the Globality Consulting blog. Today, we will be looking at some of the main ways in which this practice can affect a company, but also at those that most people do not think about that often. There are those, believe us.

Great Expertise

The first and the foremost thing that you get from IT outsourcing is that you get the services of professionals with years, if not decades, of experience in IT. Instead of hiring local talent which can often be lacking, you get the services of someone that would otherwise cost you huge amounts of money, only at a much, much lower price. As a result of this, your IT needs are handled more efficiently and more quickly, which can be a determining factor in the success of your company.

You Scale Easily

Another effect of outsourcing IT is that you can scale up and down your IT department as needed. When you have an in-house department, it is built for the needs of your company at the moment of starting the department. When your company grows, it takes time to grow your IT department as well and you are left with a period of time when you do not have IT people to cover all the bases. Also, if your company hits a rough patch and needs to be smaller, you are often left with a huge IT team that serves no purpose. With an outsourced IT service, you pay for what you need, when you need it.

Top-of-the-Line Tech

Ask any IT professional what they need to do their job the right way and they will all mention two things – a bit of peace and proper equipment. By equipment, they mean all kinds of tech that advances at an incredible pace these days. Most companies cannot afford to upgrade their IT tech every few months and the IT people are left wanting. With an outsourced IT service, you know that you are getting the latest tech and the freshest knowledge. This can often make a difference between being late to the party and being an innovator.

The Matter of Security

When we are talking security, we are talking a double-edged sword here. Intuitively, it feels like an in-house IT department will be safer. They are literally “in house” and they are the direct employees of a company. They also only handle your needs and they do not have additional accounts that might find their way to the same servers and the same data centers. Also, it is much easier to handle the human factor when dealing with people you know.

On the other hand, cyber security is mostly about other employees in the company and not the IT department. Human error is at the core of the vast majority of data breaches and IT department is rarely involved, actually. Furthermore, companies that provide outsourced IT services are often secured up to their necks in order to be able to put their clients at ease.

Bringing Someone Over

There is something that people do not talk about and that is the case when the company is so pleased with the work an outsourced IT company or team does for them that they decide to invite them over. This mostly happens with the largest companies, though.

Perhaps it is best to explain this with an example. Let’s say that there is this large Australian company which outsources their IT to somewhere else, like somewhere in Asia. They are assigned a team and this team stays with them for years, handling their needs and everything. After a while, this Australian company decides to start an in-house IT team. Who do they call? They probably approach the folks from that outsourced company. With a bit of help from a company doing professional immigration services, this large company suddenly has an in-house team made up of their former outsourced partners.

It happens.

Closing Word

There is so much more to the outsourced IT relationship that one would imagine. It is a complicated practice that most often produces incredible results for everyone involved. Sometimes it gets even more unique and exciting.

In the business world of today, an IT department or an outsourcing service can make a huge difference. With innovation and quick responses being more important than ever before and with online marketing becoming such a huge factor, a company’s IT efforts have become a crucial part of its functioning.

Today, we will be examining why it makes sense for the vast majority of businesses, especially the small-to-medium ones to outsource their IT needs, instead of employing an in-house IT department.

1. Money

Some people may find it vulgar that we start with money, but for the vast majority of smaller companies, money is the biggest factor when deciding on something, including their IT needs. Running an in-house IT department can be very expensive and even more than that, not exactly cost-effective. When you only need IT people a few times every month, there is little point in paying them all-year round.

Things get even more complicated when you learn how much professionals with the most lucrative tech specializations make. You will also need to make sure these people have somewhere to work, which means you will be spending more on office space. Then there is the equipment. The expenses pile up.

With an outsourced IT service, you pay for what you need and you pay a fee that does not change. This allows you to better plan out your budget for the upcoming period and make sure that all of your money is well-spent.

2. Talent

Depending on where your company is headquartered and how much money you have to afford, you will be able to get more or less talented IT experts. The reality is that unless you have a hefty budget to operate on and are headquartered in a big city, the chances are you will be limited when it comes to top tech IT experts.

When you go with an outsourced IT service, you are getting people who have been “in the trenches” for a long time and whose expertise is never questionable.

3. Equipment

For the most part, your accounting department will be able to get their job done on their ancient computers that you last updated in 1997. The same goes for salespeople whose job tends to be more about communicating with people than deploying the latest advances. Your IT people, however, cannot work with antiquated equipment if you wish them to have any positive influence on the bottom line. In short, they will need new equipment often and it will cost you money.

Outsourced IT services pride themselves on the equipment they bring to the table, equipment that allows their people to cater to their customers (i.e. you) as well as is humanly possible. In the IT world, latest tech advancements can make a huge difference.

4. Scalability

Different companies need different things from their IT people. For some, the needs are quite limited, while others have certain jobs that will require an entire team of highly skilled professionals to do. With an internal IT department, it is always a hassle when you need to make it bigger or smaller. In one case, you are hiring a new tech specialist and it takes time and money. Conversely, you are getting rid of someone and opening a whole other can of worms.

With outsourced IT people, this stops being an issue. When you need more from them, you simpy let them know and they allocate more people and resources to your account. If you do not need them as much in the next period, you let them know. The cost of their services might go up or down, but once again, you know what you are paying for.

The most important thing is that with outsourced IT team, you get exactly what you paid for and what you need at that point in time.

For most small businesses, outsourcing an IT department is not even debated. The requirements of having an in-house IT department and the costs of running it make it impossible for small businesses to feature their own IT people. However, in some advanced small businesses, mid-sized businesses and especially in big firms and companies, outsourcing is not the only choice and such businesses might want to have their own IT department. So, for such businesses, is outsourcing the IT department a good idea?

We believe that it is and we will give you a few reasons why this is the case.

The Cost

The costs of running an in-house IT department can be quite high. For one, you are adding one or more persons to your payroll; you need to pay taxes for them, you need to take care of their social security and health insurance. On top of all that, your IT department will require equipment, software and a whole other range of stuff to keep them up and running. This will continue to happen as technology advances and you will constantly be putting money into your IT department.

On the other hand, with outsourced IT department, you will be spending only a fraction of that, as you will not be their only client and as they will spread the expenses of their operation across a number of clients, thus reducing the actual price that you will be paying.

The Technology

We have touched upon this in our previous bullet point, but it is important enough for us to dedicate a whole paragraph to it. Namely, we are talking about the technology which is always crucial for the IT department and the work they can do for you. No matter how hard you try, your IT department will always lag behind when it comes to technology (unless you happen to run a giant company with near-unlimited resources). It is difficult and extremely expensive to stay in touch with all of the latest developments in the tech industry.

On the other hand, you have professional service providers who do only this and whose livelihood depends on delivering the latest in tech solutions and services. When you outsource your IT department, you ensure that you get the latest and the highest-quality technology.

The Expertise

The companies that do outsourced IT for other businesses, the so called managed services providers (MSPs), employ the best talent in the industry or otherwise they would not be able to do their job properly and they would not succeed. Their experts have the necessary education and they are always doing everything they can to stay on top of their game.

On the other hand, you can never be certain that the IT people you hire yourself are that good. In fact, many IT departments are run by people who are less-than-spectacular at their job and that is not something you want for your business, is it?

The Future

Yes, we understand that this sounds a bit abstract, but stay with us, we know where we’re going with this. When we are talking about future, we mean both the future of your IT system as well as the future of your company in general.

As we said, outsourced IT service providers have more expertise and they will make it much easier for you to implement new tech solutions to your company. People from a website design firm Infinity Technologies have told us that when they deliver new websites or custom-made solutions to businesses, they have much better experiences when they deal with outsourced IT departments due to their superior expertise.

Also, when you outsource your IT department , everyone who works for you can concentrate on what is truly important – doing their actual work that drives your business forward and that makes it more successful.

Closing Word

Of course, when outsourcing your IT department, you need to know that you are getting the best you can get and this is where a consulting company like Globality Consulting shows its strength, putting you in touch with only the best and most reputable MSPs out there.